‘Kim Bu-jang’ full-AI video, 100% produced on ‘AICRON,’ a platform planned by Korea’s VFX experts

SBS Friday-Saturday drama ‘Kim Bu-jang’ (written by Nam Dae-jung, directed by Lee Seung-young and Lee So-eun, planned by Studio S, produced by Studio S, and Fantagio) is drawing another wave of attention after adopting bold AI technology, as it has broken through 21.6% viewership within four episodes and is currently in a blaze of runaway popularity.

A roughly three-minute sequence that shows the past of Kim Bu-jang (So Ji-seop), the protagonist who came from a special agent background, was produced entirely with AI, and this marks the first time in Korea’s drama history that ‘Kim Bu-jang’ has done so. In particular, the AI production used ‘AICRON (AICRON),’ an AI platform that was directly planned by domestic VFX video experts and completed with domestic technological capability, with 100% of the work done on the platform.

In ‘Kim Bu-jang,’ the portion that uses AI video aired in episodes 1 and 2 in a sequence where So Ji-seop, the protagonist and a captured intelligence operative originally from North Korea, gets infiltrated and carries out a special mission. Instead of short cuts measured in seconds, a long sequence lasting about three minutes was produced entirely with AI. The sequence is set against a North Korean backdrop, showing a scene in which So Ji-seop blows up a building, a car chase takes place on snow-covered roads and inside a tunnel, a vehicle overturns, an underwater scene in which a car smashes through a guardrail and falls to submerge in a river, and even the sight of the vehicle being recovered. The sequence also stands out for its firefight scenes among the characters, including So Ji-seop, as well as powerful action scenes. It also freely uses close-up shots that show the characters’ facial expressions without being at all constrained by the consistency of characters, which had been singled out as a source of instability for AI video.

These are scenes that require a substantial production budget if filmed with live action, including art costs and outdoor location costs, special-effects costs such as explosions, and VFX costs including CG. The ‘Kim Bu-jang’ production team made a bold call: it decided to produce these essential scenes with full AI in order to complete the character of the protagonist Kim Bu-jang at the highest level.

The production of the AI video for ‘Kim Bu-jang’ was handled by Mofius Studio. Founded by VFX professionals for Korean film and drama, Mofius Studio has been operating after launching the AI service ‘AICRON (AICRON)’ in February this year, which it planned itself.

AICRON is an AI content-production platform that provides an integrated pipeline built on a Node system, in which all work—from prompt input to final video completion—is carried out on a single canvas. It allows users to select and use the desired model from among 150 or more currently commercial AI models, including a chatbot for prompt generation, an image-generation model, a video-generation model, and a sound model. Another notable feature is video-specific utilities that incorporate know-how from VFX-experienced professionals.

The AI video for ‘Kim Bu-jang’ was also produced with 100% AICRON. Ryu Jae-hwan, vice representative director of Mofius Studio, who has won the Daejong Film Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards as a VFX supervisor for ‘1947 Boston,’ ‘Swing Kids,’ ‘The Flu,’ and ‘Jungcheon,’ personally oversaw the AI video work. He then handled every production step—image generation, video production, editing, and more—using AICRON’s workflow, starting from the planning stage.

About the results ‘Kim Bu-jang’ is showing, Vice Representative Director Ryu Jae-hwan said, “This isn’t a level of simply replacing VFX cuts that are just a few seconds with AI. The most important point of this project is that we worked with AI on the entire sequence that’s essential for raising the completion level of the story.” He added, “‘Kim Bu-jang’ made it possible to produce high-quality AI video work because the production team had a clear goal from the start about how it would use AI video. This is a case that properly proves that AI can become a new creative tool and an outstanding partner for creators who have good planning and a story.”

Mofius Studio, which operates the AICRON service, also said, “Above all, it is meaningful that the AI video for ‘Kim Bu-jang’ was completed only with AICRON’s workflow—planned by domestic video experts and produced with domestic technology.” It continued, “As we aim to create a creative platform that can deliver results at a level suitable for commercial use, we will continue to advance and further upgrade AICRON by reflecting on the ‘Kim Bu-jang’ AI video production experience.”

‘Kim Bu-jang,’ the SBS Friday-Saturday drama that is barreling through the ratings with a No. 1 spot among miniseries this year, airs every Friday and Saturday at 9:50 p.m. While it has drawn explosive viewership, ‘Kim Bu-jang’ also opened up a new horizon for K-dramas through a bold and proactive adoption of AI technology.